Oculus Rift VR Headset Price Tag Rumored At $499 With Summer Launch

We’ve been following the development of the Oculus Rift for some time, and for as exciting as the device has been in theory, glowing reports from CES about the new Oculus Rift “Crystal Cove” prototype and its improvement on the last prototypes makes the headset downright tantalizing.

There are still big questions left answered, notably how much the Oculus Rift will cost at retail and when we can all go buy one, but Forbes reporter Jason Evangelho did some sleuthing and has an idea: $499, coming this summer.

The Oculus Rift will be sold (at least in some instances) with the equally amazing Virtuix Omni gaming treadmill and software from the Virtual World Web (the package will be called the “Holodeck”), and CEO of Virtual World Web Brian Shuster told Evangelho that the whole kit and kaboodle will cost $999 when it launches this summer.

We already know that the Virtuix Omni costs $499, so even assuming that the software is thrown in gratis, a little arithmetic tells you that the Oculus Rift component will also cost $499 (or $500, if you want to get technical). Perhaps that number represents a bundle discount on the Oculus Rift, but even so, this gives us a pretty solid idea of where the device will land on the price scale.

$500 is not pocket change, but for serious gamers or even families willing to splurge a bit on entertainment, that’s a reasonable number.